This past autumn, the Conservancy helped facilitate two different weekend workshops centered around deer harvesting and processing led by WJOŁEŁP | Tsartlip hunter, Adam Sampson. Adam is a life-long hunter who provides meat to a number of Indigenous communities in the region. The workshops aimed to support Indigenous-led hunting and Read more
This is the third and final part in a three-part series on the impacts of deer overpopulation on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island. In the first two instalments of this series, we explored the ways in which deer overpopulation reduces biodiversity and the ability of local ecosystems to respond to change. Read more
In Part 1 of this series on the impacts of deer overpopulation, we discussed how the loss of large predators and the introduction of non-native fallow deer has resulted in an increase in the number of deer on SḴŦAḴ | Mayne Island, and how all those hungry mouths have a Read more
In this three-part series we will delve deeper into the surprisingly broad impacts of deer overpopulation on Mayne Island. The loss of large predators, combined with the introduction of a non-native deer species (fallow deer), has resulted in browse pressure that affects everything from biodiversity to fire management and flood Read more
The Mayne Island Invasive Fallow Deer Committee, which has representation from the Conservancy, held its first community information meeting on the May long weekend. There were over 100 people who attended and heard presentations about the history of the fallow deer on Mayne, their impact on the environment, the economic Read more
Community Meeting: Sunday, May 21 at 1:00 pm at the Ag. Hall grounds If you’ve lived on Mayne Island for any length of time, you know we have a deer problem. In addition to the overabundant native blacktail deer, we have an invasive fallow deer problem that dates from the Read more
The Mayne Conservancy decided over a year ago that we needed to engage with the provincial government on the overabundant invasive fallow deer problem on Mayne. Since then we have shared with you our letters and the one response from the government. We decided that with the recent change in Read more
With the recent changes in the provincial government Cabinet, the Conservancy wrote to Nathan Cullen, Minister of Water, Land, and Resource Stewardship, on January 16, 2023 requesting that the government of BC take action on the fallow deer issue on Mayne by providing a funded solution. Here’s our letter: To: Read more
When I first arrived on Mayne I was enthralled to see so many deer wandering along the island roads and paths. They are beautiful animals, and they would stand and look at me with their big brown eyes as I took their photo. But I soon learned that the deer Read more
To follow up on previous posts in the Oystercatcher, in the fall of 2021 the Conservancy began to more actively advocate with the provincial government to live up to its responsibility to deal with the hyperabundant populations of introduced Fallow deer and the native Blacktail deer. The large numbers of Read more